Stretch film is widely used for wrapping and securing palletized loads for shipping. This is partly due to the fact that stretch film exhibits a “memory”, or a tendency to shrink, upon stretching. For example, stretch film that is stretched by an amount of 10% will shrink nearly 10% of its stretched length. This “memory” assists in securing wrapped palletized articles together under compression.
Stretch film is fabricated in the form of stretch film rolls. Each stretch film roll may be used to manually wrap a palletized load, or may be loaded into an automated wrapping machine.
In some situations, the tensile strength of conventional stretch film may be insufficient to withstand tensile forces applied during wrapping, which can cause the stretch film to tear during wrapping.
Improvements are generally desired. It is therefore an object at least to provide a novel method and apparatus for fabricating stretch film rolls.